The Festival of Lights

I'm probably the only blogger who hasn't yet posted anything about the wonderful holiday of Chanukah; thank G-d it's eight days long, so procrastinating bloggers such as I can get our act together (Amazing. And here you thought it was eight days long because of the miracle of the oil.).
Everything I wanted to tell you about (prepare yourselves for one lo-ooong, run-on sentence) - the over 2,000 year old history of this holiday dating back to the time when Judea was under the rule of the Seleucid king Antiochus around 169 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and his cruel prohibitions of Jewish religious practices such as ritual circumcision and Sabbath observance and the Hasmonean family whose head was Matityahu (Mattathias) who led the Jewish revolt against Antiochus with his five sons one of whom was Yehudah who was called "Maccabee" (Judah Maccabee) from the Hebrew letters on his shield meaning "who is like You among the gods O Lord" which formed the acronym "Maccabee" meaning 'hammer,' and who (Yehudah Maccabee, that is) defeated Antiochus' army and in the course of cleaning up the defiled Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple) there was found one little undefiled cruse of oil etc. etc. and the holiday of "dedication" or Chanukah was declared (deep breath) - was already probably written about by other bloggers (score: 2) (Inside joke-right, Nikki? And-Charlie, hope you had a good flight back to Sacramento: we'll miss you!)

So instead of telling you this whole story of Mahi Chanukah (a Jewish inside joke), I am posting this nice little musical video, produced by a friend of my younger son (the one who was just married last June).
Enjoy. And eat latsa latkes.